Tonight’s starter: Maine trying to regain sharpness

By his own admission, “John Maine’s”:http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=7386 said work needs to be done. Maine, despite his numbers (5-0, 1.79 ERA), admittedly hasn’t had his best stuff in his last two starts.

However, the overriding theme in both is that he pitched well enough for the Mets to win.

A pitcher might not have his best stuff but for maybe a third of his starts if he’s lucky. That Maine has been able to get out of an unraveling inning is a sign of his maturity.

Said manager Willie Randolph: “One of the things about John that I really like is that he keeps us in the game.’’

John Delcos enters his third season covering the Mets for The Journal News after eight seasons on the Yankees beat. Prior to coming to New York, John covered the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians.